Wartys Dr. Who First Watch

I'd been wondering.

I still think Pink would have been much better as a companion than Clara.

I needed a break from Clara... or Moffatt... The Doctor.. something.

It's Clara. She's the worst.

Kill the Moon

This packed a lot in. We had the ticking countdown clock, a great moral dilemma, and somehow they wove young Courtney in without being too stupid. There was a nice little thing at the beginning with The  Doctor calling Lundvik's bluff about killing them because that was then contrasted against her opinion about killing an innocent as the main moral compass moment of the entire episode.

What it all boiled down to in the big picture was Clara telling off The Doctor, which was in my opinion very appropriate for the moment. The Doctor comes down, gets involved, becomes a part of everything and then just wants to vacate and claim no responsibility for the decisions that have to be made. From the human perspective, she was right. I know we sometimes like to think there is a greater perspective The Doctor has that the other characters don't grasp, but he has proven himself very fallible. One thing that has bothered me about 12 is it seems he has forgotten all of the humility that should have been learned after his previous incarnations.

Anyway... its too bad The Doctor probably wont shove off to the point of finding a new companion.

Man I REALLY have to watch this again. I remembering hating that episode, but I can't remember why.

Mummy on the Orient Express

The big question here is why was The Doctor lured to that train. I want to think there
was some bigger reason here than just what was on the surface.

I don't really know why all of a sudden Clara was on another adventure with The Doctor after last episode, but whatevs.

Flatline

This was an interesting episode as The Doctor, TARDIS, Clara et al finally bring dimension into the equation. This was a unique way to have a Doctor-lite episode by making it so he couldn't
exit the TARDIS. 

The only problem there was that meant this was a Clara-centric episode and no matter how hard they try,  I'm just not that into her.

It was fun to see The Doctor get mad that Clara lied to him when she was being The Doctor, because we all know The Doctor.... well.. lies.

Again though... the tie-in at the end with heaven seems just tacked on, but not really a cohesive part of the stories we've seen. At least though it seems heaven or whatever it is wants Clara and if it gets her then she won't be here any longer. Something else about this tacked on feeling about the heaven narrative is that I just realized that's exactly how I feel about Clara. She was just sort of tacked on tonthe Whoverse. Rose came in and you really saw her develop into the whole thing. Donna Noble sort of dove-tailed her way in and it made sense. Amy Pond waited for years for the Doctor to come back, and I felt it when he did. Rory developed his way in as well through Amy. Even Martha's dishrag felt like it was a natural part of the kitchen. Like them all or not, they all seemed a natural progression... a development that evolved into the story...

Then enter Clara... who to me just feels tacked on. "Here's Clara. She's the new companion. She is what you see on the surface. Accept it." There's this natural development that seems to be missing. 

She's the frozen TV dinner of companions. Ready made.. someone just took her out of the microwave and plopped her down in front of me. It's not bad, but you just can't do anything to it to make it seem more than what it is. You can add some salt and a little spice, but it's still just pre-packaged and bland no matter how nice the picture on the box might look.

Hehe,  Clara is "the frozen TV dinner of companions".  Nice!

In the Forest of the Night

Entertaining, but confusing.

The trees were here to help, yet it was Maebh who thought them up...

Her sister comes back at the end with no explanation really why or how.. and if it was just because
she wished it then why didn't she come back long ago.

It's like Moffat and the writers just said "well Clara sucks as a companion, so $&%# it."

Really not feeling this all that much.

I promise, better times are coming. I feel bad that you have to binge this portion. I was watching week to week at this point so it was probably easier to suffer through in small doses.

Well I have slowed the pace. I might still hit two a night, but then I've also been taking 2,3,5 days off.

It really has been the worst season for me. Capaldi has put in a solid effort but it's like there was more of a gap in Doctor personality than there had been between previous versions. That alone is okay... but then add in Clara, and a season long story-arc that just seems like its randomly thrown in, and... not so much okay.

Oh yeah... and while I'm complaining... the whole Clara/Mr. Pink/Doctor thing has been rubbish.

Clara falls in love with him out of the blue.. no build up. They don't sell it.
She fights with The Doctor.. tells him it's over... mostly because of Pink.
She's back with The Doctor.. no explanation and Pink is okay with it.
Then she's hiding being with The Doctor like an alcoholic hiding his booze all over the house because Pink doesn't like it. Then she's back openly with The Doctor.

It's all just so.... gah!!!

Quite frankly, I think a Companion love relationship after Amy and Rory was going
to be a hard sell anyway even if they did everything right, and they totally botched 
the effort altogether.

Dark Water & Death in Heaven


The season ended on a high note with the resolution of the nethersphere or "heaven". Missy/Master was great. The beginning where The Doctor told Clara to "go to hell" was quite enjoyable... too bad he actually meant it as a destination. Mr. Pink is gone, and good riddance.

I still think this was a bad season despite the good ending. I don't have any idea what the meaning was behind Clara being stuck in Danny's timeline or how anything else outside of a few Easter eggs played into the finale.

The finale though... very solid Moffat stuff.

Last Christmas

Check it off as seen - On to season 9

I got caught up watching West Wing (I know, it's old, but I've never seen it and I'm in love with Toby).

I have neglected you grievously and I deserve your anger and scorn.

You have full reason to use this against me in the future.

I will catch up with you and make it up to you.

I haven't taken the plunge into Capaldi World yet. Maybe when I nuke a frozen TV dinner, I'll sit down and watch a few Clara episodes.

Season 9

The Magicians apprentice and The Witch's familiar were great. 

It seemed like the Doctor Who I loved. Hand mines? That's freaky...  God how much I love Missy/Master. She's like Catwoman.. a villain but there's this ambiguity about her character. I mean you can't help but like her. I also finally settled in with Capaldi's take on The Doctor. This two-parter gave him the vehicle... finally.
Missy though... in part 1, she stole the show.
She did well in part 2 as well. The second ep though was all about The Doctor and Davros. There were some interesting explanations of Dalekdom in this episode (that explains why they always yell "exterminate) although I must admit it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that the pepper pot suits are what keep the little greenies in check.. but still: Moffat.
You sort if say.. "yeah.. makes sense".

Under the Lake and Before the Flood

Sleazy exec willing to sacrifice lives in exchange for the reward gave me an Aliens movie vibe.
"They mostly come at night... mostly".

Loved the breaking of the 4th wall as Capaldi explained the bootstrap paradox at the beginning of the 2nd part ep....
Then of course it became the bootstrap paradox upon another bootstrap paradox on another. 

All very well done dealing with the time travel paradox issue... illustrating it, without really trying to go off explaining anything about it.... which really is for the best.

This season is making up for the mostly abysmal 8th. I've loved it through this point. Even Clara still being around hasn't ruined it. 

Just for the record... a couple of more extras here that I think would have made great companions.

Is this whole season going to be two-parters?

Apparently yes..
The Girl who Dies and The Girl who Lived

Nice seeing Maise.. The plot here is something we've seen many times. Episode was solid... lots of humour. Lots of great dialogue between the characters. The bigger thing at the end was Maise being given immortality and becoming a hybrid, just as Davros had stated. That paradox again.

The girl who lived was great... Maise again, and best of all; no Clara until the end. Seeing Maise in the picture at the end was a nice touch.

The Zygon Invasion and The Zygon Inversion

This reminds me of the cult classic movie: "They Live". We've got aliens posing as humans and special sunglasses.

More than a fair amount of political commentary here about terrorism. The rogue Zylons=radical Muslim terrorists. That was a bit heavy handed, but whatever. It's all good when Osgood is back. She ranks # 6 on my list of people who would make a better companion than Clara.

The second part begins with Clara encased in something again... too bad its not a sarcophagus.
The humour has been ramped up lately: 
"What's your first name?"
"What's yours?"
"Basil"
"Petronella"
"Let's just stick with what we have"

I'm not so sure I understood the concept of exact duplicates running around the city and how that wouldn't lead to problems, but The Doctor's speech at the end was pretty epic. Him wiping the memories at the end was a classic Whotwist.

Sleep no more

The Blair Who Project... or Aliens.. Station went silent.. crew of Marines shows up to investigate. 

Morpheus... I think I am going to be really in to this one. Sandman... bring me a dream..; I loved The Doctor talking poetically about sleep. 

This while quite confusing, was also a clever little trick to bring it us the viewers. The way the video had been created to keep everyone watching so they could be "infected", the episode was the same way towards us the viewers.. and oh gods.. 

WE'RE NOW INFECTED!!!

All in all a little self indulgence in a method of story telling unique for this medium. Don't try and understand it any more than that.

Face the Raven

Rigsy the artist is back. Plus we have Maise again and a smoke monster. 

I have really liked Capaldi this season, but I really loved him here. Clara's gone in the least emotional companion loss ever. Sorry... I just never got her. I never got her in the role, and I never really got the role either. Why was she the impossible girl? Hell.. I dunno.. because they said she was? Anyway... she smart and smugged her way to death.

Should be a great end of the season.

Heaven Sent

I look for little things, and the beginning here was subtly awesome... down to The Doctor picking up the sand and letting it run through his fingers.

Water... over time; can carve the Grand Canyon. The Doctor wins because he just refuses to lose. Never has that been more illustrated than jn this episode. He will play the game 12 million times just to figure out how to win because as long as he's still playing; it's not really over.

The while idea here...The Doctor trapped in what can only be described as his own confession dial was raw, emotional, and quite gripping. The big question is who ir what it was that drew him to Gallifrey.

Anyway... this was 99.8 percent Capaldi alone as The Doctor and .2 percent Clara in some form... winner winner. It was actually Capaldi at his best without the boat anchor around his neck. The beauty here (and it's a Moffat thing) is that the clues that reveal what is going on are there, but you can't understand them until the end. Directed and shot wonderfully, gripping... compelling. This is why you watch Doctor Who.

Hell Bent

Oh Time Lord... the hay bed in the loft. I liked the visual of the ship and giant cannon aimed at the lone figure of The Doctor as it showed how scared of him they are. Then he draws the line in the sand and goes back to finish his soup!

Well...  Like something from a Monty Pyton movie, Clara is back saying "I'm not dead yet."

So the finale ends up being a story... where memories go.

The clues were all there. It was obvious The Doctor didn't remember Clara as he told her the story. In the end, I will try not to be overly harsh about Clara's time. I think The Doctor would have wanted it that way.

Putting Clara in context...

Most Companions just sort of showed up, traveled with the Doctor, never left him until the did leave him or they died. Exception is the Third Doctor. In his time he was exiled to Earth so the TARDIS was locked down, shoved in a room at the old manor house that served as the headquarters for UNIT and his Companions were the people who worked with him daily, they went home every night and slept in their own beds. Amy and Rory were the first Companions to have a life separate from the Doctor. This was because the Doctor did not want to get them killed, or worse, after a bunch of horrible things had already happened. He'd leave them for months at a time and then show back up again, but the schizophrenic nature of this wound up being detrimental to their relationship. Moffatt wrote them into a stuck-in-the-past scenario where they were out of reach of the Doctor, possibly the best outcome for them.

And then there is Clara. Once we get through the Impossible Girl with Eleven she becomes another Companion who has a life separate from the Doctor. Initially she only stays with him because he calls her to tell her that his future self is going to need help adapting. But Clara's mundane life v. Life with the Doctor is the opposite of Amy and Rory's. With the Ponds dealing with rent, bills, milk gone off, that was just something to do while waiting for the Doctor to show up again and whisk them of to some fantastic adventure. Clara was, yes, once a little girl who wanted to travel, see the sights, as a grown woman she kept that wanderlust, but mostly she also wanted to settle down, be stable. For her the Doctor is that old school chum who never grew up, always popping back in while you are busy going to college, getting married, raising kids, and he wants to drag you off the the lake for fishing or three days in Baja or hunting at a really nice secluded cabin on the U.P...and by the time you are 30 your wife has bought a bottle of arsenic to dump in his coffee next time he comes around and all you can think to ask her is if she got it on sale and please...did she pay cash so it can't be traced to you.

That's about the best I can do to contextualize her...which still does not make for he being a "good companion" in any way. There have been much worse ones though.

Again, things I can't speak to as those were pre-2005

I'm into S10 now after the two Christmas specials.

I don't know if I am going to post to mostly myself about it, but I will note that Bill Potts has already
proven to be a better companion than Clara.

Just popping in to say yes, Bill Potts is 100x better than Clara.

And with that, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to keep up with you.

I will say, "Heaven Sent" is prob my favorite episode of this entire show. That's one hell of a bird.

But okay, hopping in as a terrible, terrible fucking person and I know that I've previously hopped in to expound on what a terrible person I am, but yes, I abandoned you when Clara came on scene and I'm sorry.

Clara really is that fucking awful.
But 12 really is that fucking great, despite being crippled by Moffatt's bad bad writing and plotting.

Good things:
Missy.
And Missy.
And Missy.

She's wonderful and fabulous and has led me to questions about my own sexuality
And because you don't live in a bubble, you know that Capaldi's successor is Jodie Whittaker. I was someone who was vehemently against a female Doctor, for the simple fact that the Doctor and I have a very serious intimate relationship and I'm straight.
But upon thinking about it, I'm okay with 13, and Missy is a big part of that. Apparently I can love a character regardless of gender. I did not know that about myself She's just so WONDERFUL and captures everything I loved so much about the Master, the madness and the genius and the exuberant excess of both of those things. It leads me to be able to visualize still loving the Doctor even when the Doctor doesn't have a penis.
So yeah, this was kind of huge for me, personally.

And obviously that was Moffat's intention. He wanted a woman Doctor, so he used this to set the stage and gauge the temperature of the fans.

Short comments on seasons 8/9:

Yes, Season 9 is wayyyy better than Season 8. There are bits of S8 that I love to pieces, generally when Capaldi is given some leeway to actually show what he can do. I still will always be pissed that Moffat so rarely used Capaldi to his full potential. I wish Moffat had left after S8, that Clara had left after S8, that Capaldi had gotten a chance to really thrive as the Doctor, with a good companion (at least we got S10 with Bill, but, you'll see). Because I love 12 every bit as hard as I loved 9 and 10. A great example of why is the Zygon two-parter, and Capaldi's climactic scene in those. "You think this is a war? This funny little thing? This isn't a war, I fought in a bigger war than you could ever imagine, and when I close my eyes, I hear more screams than you would ever be able to count" (paraphrase from memory). CHILLS. Capaldi is exactly the guy to remind us of the stakes and to carry the character forward. The Zygon Inversion speech is one of my favorite things to ever happen on television. "Are they going to play the violin? Who's going to make the violins? You don't know, do you?" And the KILLER, "When you've won, and everything is perfect and just, what are you going to do with the people like you? The trouble-makers. How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one?" There's just SO MUCH going on here.
Two buttons. Such a brilliant episode.

But then there's "Heaven Sent" which I've watched approx a million times. I'll never get tired of rewatching that pure artistry. The writing, Capaldi's acting (ALONE-- he carries the entire episode by himself, no co-stars, purely talking to himself or acting silently), the directing, it's a masterpiece. And the shepherd boy said. JESUS it's good.
And it's a fucking shame that it had to get ruined with "Hell Bent," bogged down by Moffat's fetish for the worst companion EVER and his inability to have a sad ending for anything. As much as I fucking hated Clara for three years, I thought "Face the Raven" was solid and I actually did shed a few tears during that ep. It was a good send-off for her. It had a sense of purpose and nobility. Even if the reason that she died was because, predictably, she thought she shouldn't just fucking listen to the Doctor. The ep still worked, and I was sad about her death, and it was good.
But Moffat cannot leave well enough alone and he needs things to end up in Fairy Happy Land. He is ALWAYS robbing his OWN WRITING of emotional depth.
Whatever.

S10 has some real stinker episodes. But also has some unexpected beauty. Bill is such a breath of fresh air and I like her a LOT. At the end of the day, I'm glad that Moffat is out, and I'm still clinging to Capaldi's ankles and sobbing for him not to leave. We all knew at the beginning of S10 that it was his last season, so if there is any level of spoiling here, whatever, you're in the same place all of us were. I don't want him to go. I came into S10 totally hostile to the pure idea of this new person taking his place. But, the season unfolds as it does. Watch.

Well I am done with the firstwatch, done with the Moffat era, done with the Capaldi era, and ready to see
what the next doctor will bring.

Nardale was great... Missy was great... Clara was terrible.

Here is my list of people who were never companions but would have made great ones. Some bamea not mentioned are probably actual companions in some way. Plus I stopped adding names after Clara was 
done, so there were probably more this final season of the first watch.

Lynda with a Y
Osgood
Sally Sparrow
Craig Owens
Maise 
Astrid
Canton Delaware
Chantho Prof Yanna's assistant
Lady Clemency Eddison
Lady Souza 
Vastra
Jenny 
Strax
The lady astronaut who sacrificed herself
Nancy from The Empty Child
Renette-Madame de Pompadour
All the characters from The Satan Pit
That girl that was the fake Doctor's companion.
Miss Evangelista 

Bannaffakaletta 

BANNAFFAKALETTA!!!

Did you watch the Christmas Special from last year?

Yes of course.

Bradley was great.. lol'd when he assumed Bill was a maid.

The memory of Clara was terrible, but it was pretty great. 12 grew on me something fierce. Lots of tidbits and references in his final speech, but it can stand alone as well as something we all should take to heart. 

I should end my first-watch thoughts with his words:


Never be cruel, never be cowardly. And never ever eat pears! 


Remember – hate is always foolish…and love, is always wise.


Always try, to be nice and never fail to be kind. 


Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.

I feel robbed. You didn't comment at all on how the season ended. Kelly and I have had massive arguments about that episode...

Also, you liked Lady Souza? Blech.

More than Clara... I like drinking bleach more than Clara.

As far as feeling robbed goes, I felt fairly abandoned and was making comments that got no responses.

Feel free to post your thoughts on how it ended and the Vonn debates.

I just really never had my mind in the mode of posting mental notes during this season.

I wish I could have participated after the 11th Doctor, but I enjoyed your insights up through the Matt Smith episodes.
Has any episode you've seen during the Capaldi run topped any of the best episodes of the previous Doctors?

Warthawg1 wrote:

More than Clara... I like drinking bleach more than Clara.

As far as feeling robbed goes, I felt fairly abandoned and was making comments that got no responses.

Feel free to post your thoughts on how it ended and the Vonn debates.

I just really never had my mind in the mode of posting mental notes during this season.

That's fair, we did abandon you during the Clara years. But the Bill episodes, that's a better time. I think you would have had more interaction from us for the Bill episodes.

The Ness/Vonne debate: Who's ending was more tragic, Donna's or Bill's? Why? I'd like to see your take before Vonne or I chime in with our takes to limit any potential bias.

MrBill60 wrote:

I wish I could have participated after the 11th Doctor, but I enjoyed your insights up through the Matt Smith episodes.
Has any episode you've seen during the Capaldi run topped any of the best episodes of the previous Doctors?  

Heaven sent was epic. 

It's hard to say much though as there are tiered levels and it's hard to rank one above the other. I wouldn't say Heaven Sent topped the best of the previous Doctor's, but it was top shelf. The Christmas Special finale for Capaldi was one of the best of those as well.

Nessess wrote:

Warthawg1 wrote:

More than Clara... I like drinking bleach more than Clara.

As far as feeling robbed goes, I felt fairly abandoned and was making comments that got no responses.

Feel free to post your thoughts on how it ended and the Vonn debates.

I just really never had my mind in the mode of posting mental notes during this season.

That's fair, we did abandon you during the Clara years.  But the Bill episodes, that's a better time.  I think you would have had more interaction from us for the Bill episodes.

The Ness/Vonne debate:  Who's ending was more tragic, Donna's or Bill's?  Why?  I'd like to see your take before Vonne or I chime in with our takes to limit any potential bias.  

I'll think about it a bit before I answer.

And how epic were the Master and Missy in the same scenes? I was beside myself with ecstasy.

Warthawg1 wrote:

Heaven sent was epic. 

It's hard to say much though as there are tiered levels and it's hard to rank one above the other. I wouldn't say Heaven Sent topped the best of the previous Doctor's, but it was top shelf. The Christmas Special finale for Capaldi was one of the best of those as well.

The consensus here seems to be that Clara just isn't cutting it, but "Bill" seems like a sure bet.

vonnegut wrote:

And how epic were the Master and Missy in the same scenes?  I was beside myself with ecstasy.  

The Master drug Missy down, but yeah.

MrBill60 wrote:

Warthawg1 wrote:

Heaven sent was epic. 

It's hard to say much though as there are tiered levels and it's hard to rank one above the other. I wouldn't say Heaven Sent topped the best of the previous Doctor's, but it was top shelf. The Christmas Special finale for Capaldi was one of the best of those as well.

The consensus here seems to be that Clara just isn't cutting it, but "Bill" seems like a sure bet.

Bill was great, but she sure had a short run.

I marvel to think of what we could have had if Clara was gone after one season, and we had Bill for two. I actually kind of get the malcontents who were upset about Bill being a lesbian because it was a bit heavy-handed pandering at times, but even with that, Bill was just so much more vibrant, more interesting, more sympathetic. The actress did a great job.

I still hate Moffatt's forced "Happy Endings" and I think I would have been more satisfied with Bill being a more tragic Cyber figure. But, whatever, we're done with Moffatt now, for good or ill.

I'm not at all ready for 13. I'm still stretched out on my face, clinging to Capaldi's ankles, crying "please don't leave me." I liked him A LOT. I'm furious at Moffatt for not using him to his full potential, A LOT. I mean, LOOK what he did with "Heaven Sent." LOOK AT IT. I love 10 and all, but Capaldi brought an intensity I haven't seen since Eccleston. That type of below-the-surface rage and emotion. 10's emotion was all right there on the surface, and I'm not complaining, but I fell for 9 first and I still prefer that type of mood and style.

I'm a bit concerned that 13 will be more like 11, all bounce and quirk, instead of the gravitas that the others have brought the to the role of, let's be real, a CENTURIES-OLD GENOCIDAL ALIEN. Less bounce and quirk, please. Have some fucking solemnity. Have the presence to deliver that line that Capaldi does in Zygon Inversion: "After all you've done. I forgive you." "You call this a war, this funny little thing? This is not a war, I fought in a bigger war than you can ever know, I did worse things than you can ever imagine, and when I close my eyes, I hear more screams than you would ever be able to count."

That's the Doctor I met, when he grabbed Rose's hand and said "I'm the Doctor. RUN."
And maybe Classic Fans who met another Doctor can feel differently, but I think Capaldi was the culmination of everything I'd felt the character building towards for so long.

And okay now I have to put this video in this thread because REALLY.

THE TROUBLEMAKERS


BECAUSE IT'S NOT A GAME.

But really I dare any of you to name a single Doctor Who episode better than this shit:



That's a hell of a bird.


This episode will prob top my top 10 list until the end of time.

Although I'm going to put this here again because OMG what is better than the Ponds.

I do know that I abandoned you and I'll always feel bad about that, it was a combo of Clara and I was really busy and then I started watching West Wing and it just happened.

And I'm paying for it by not being able to see you play-by-play Capaldi's Christmas specials. Because Husbands of River Song? OMG. Went to see that one in the theater with my best Whovian friends and cried buckets. "A new haircut and a suit." You know as soon as it happens that this is the story of their LAST TIME TOGETHER before she goes to the library to die, and omg fuck you time travel.

And then the Superhero special was just so adorable and perfect and humorous and it came at a time in my life that I needed that, lmao.

And then the final one, with David Bradley, and as soon as they started with the Christmas truce I started crying, way to rope in super emotional history and make it real. I love that this show can do things like that.

But yeah. Now here we are.

Waiting on 13.

"Brilliant."

Well I can't go back and play by play what has already passed, so my commentary on those 
Christmas specials and a good portion of Capaldi's run will be filed under "words never spoken".

I am apprehensive about 14 as well, for the exact same reason. It has nothing to do with her
being a woman. It is a fear of the direction the show runner will take the character and The 
Doctor may be interpreted during the next series. I don't know the answer to either question
or even if the actress could pull off the way I like to see it played. She has to not only follow 
Capaldi, but she also has to make me not wish it was Michelle Gomez taking the role. If I'm 
being honest, her admittedly brief first few moments didn't give me a lot of confidence. I just
didn't see "it" when I saw her for the first time.

I was worried about the new shor runner too until I found out that he wrote The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood.

It's not just the show runner though... It's also Whittaker's take on the character and can she really pull it off if the character should be displaying inner-rage and seething anger.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christopher Eccleston talks about why he left Doctor Who

I loved Eccleston. Capaldi was good, but I didn't find him nearly as great as Vonne does. But Tenant will always be my doctor.

I think we are looking for very different things in the Doctor, and I think favorite doctors explain why. Where you see rage, I see sorrow. She doesn't have to be angry, but if I don't feel sorrow, I will be disappointed.

If I ever get there, I wonder what companions #13 will wind up with.

eta:
Caught the SDCC trailer which features her new companions. it looks pretty good.

Nessess wrote:

I loved Eccleston.  Capaldi was good, but I didn't find him nearly as great as Vonne does.  But Tenant will always be my doctor.

I think we are looking for very different things in the Doctor, and I think favorite doctors explain why.  Where you see rage, I see sorrow.  She doesn't have to be angry, but if I don't feel sorrow, I will be disappointed.  

Well i don't want her sharing a good cry with the Daleks. I'll probably be fine unless she becomes Mary Poppins, but I certainly think the previous Doctors had moments of seething anger.

Plus I would add after some of the heavy handed way some sexuality and political issues have been handled on the show, I have some worry they made this change "just because"... 

and if that's the case and they go heavy handed on pushing the issue of her being female then it could
detract from solid story telling. I don't want her femininity and woman power being the central point of every other episode. She really should just go seemlessly into being "The Doctor" without it being an issue. I have some fear that instead of her just being "the next Doctor", they will just want to pound on
her being "the first Female Doctor". 

It's like when they brought in Missy... I really just saw her as the next incarnation of The Master and she was awesome without me even thinking about the gender. 

Does that make any sense?

That makes perfect sense, and tbh from my feminist perspective, if they go heavy handed with it they will achieve the opposite of what they are hoping for. For this to be a really great cultural shift in entertainment the whole point has to be that The Doctor is The Doctor regardless of gender.

I wonder if she'll like fish fingers with custard?